Brad Pitt goes multifamily

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Brad Pitt has been all over the news because of his involvement in building single-family homes in the hard-hit 9th Ward.

Now, the Make It Right project, started by a man who with Angelina Jolie is parent to three adopted and three biological children, is delving into multifamily housing. Indeed, Pitt certainly knows about the need for a spacious house.

The news should make some former 9th Ward residents happy. After all, the 9th Ward was home to extended families prior to Katrina. Make It Right’s duplexes might bring more of those families back to the 9th Ward.

“Families who want to come back to the Lower 9th have been asking us to build them so extended families can live together,” Make It Right Executive Director Tom Darden said in a news release.

So what will these duplexes look like?

According to the press release, the solar-powered, “highly energy efficient” homes will have interchangeable floor plans that allow families to change the size and configuration of the homes as their family size, needs or economic situations change; landings or stoops in the stairways to give families a place to gather; and designs that cut construction costs dramatically.

The first duplexes are scheduled to begin construction in August.•